Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 67: Leaving 2

The roads were so rough that they only covered a little over ten kilometers in an hour. By afternoon, the convoy still hadn’t made it out of Corinth.

Quarrels frequently broke out among the people walking behind them. Ugly fights over a single piece of hardtack were a common occurrence. Wendy sat on Evelyn Ford’s lap, her hands pressed against the window as she stared outside.

At six in the evening, the convoy came to a sudden halt. Everyone got out of their vehicles and ducked into the abandoned buildings nearby to relieve themselves. Some cruder individuals simply squatted by the roadside, but they were lashed with a whip by one of the burly men collecting the protection fee and could only scurry away, begging for mercy.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK..." A filthy hand slapped against the car window. Evelyn Ford looked over and saw it was a woman in her forties or fifties.

"Please, spare some food. I’m starving. I’m old, have pity on me, just a single bite." By the cars in front and behind them, other refugees on foot were swarming the vehicles, begging for something to eat.

Only Evelyn Ford and Wendy were in the car; the others had all gone to relieve themselves. She paid the people outside no mind. Taking out the pocket watch that hung around her neck, she glanced at the time. It was six-thirty. ’Quincy and the others have been gone for half an hour just for a bathroom break?’

The rapping on the window continued. Evelyn Ford took a wad of tissue and plugged Wendy’s ears, then closed her own eyes to rest.

All sorts of smells mingled inside the car. Although the temperature had dropped, thirty degrees Celsius was hardly cool. The stench of sweat, the reek of feet... The combination was absolutely foul.

A few minutes later, Quincy and the others returned. The moment they opened the car door, a wave of stench washed over them, and their faces twisted in disgust.

"Let’s open a window and air this place out."

"We can’t. The moment we do, people will swarm us for handouts, and they’ll even try to grab our things. Let’s just tough it out. We can open a window when we start driving."

Officer Graham handed a knife to Evelyn Ford and pointed toward a building on their right.

"You two go ahead. That building is a little cleaner. I’ll watch your backs."

Evelyn Ford held Wendy, keeping her head down as she hurried toward the building on the right.

People eyed them as they went, but they quickly looked away when Evelyn Ford revealed the knife in her hand.

After finding a relatively clean room and going inside, Evelyn Ford braced the door shut and let Wendy go to the bathroom first. She took a bottle of water from her space and took a large swig, which soothed her throat.

Wendy was very well-behaved; she hadn’t cried or made a fuss the entire trip, doing whatever she was told. When she came out, Evelyn Ford gave her two pieces of candy and told her to eat them quickly. After wedging a plank against the door, Evelyn finally felt safe enough to go to the back of the room to relieve herself.

"Wendy, do you hear anything outside?" After she was finished, Evelyn Ford pointed outside and asked the girl in a hushed voice.

The girl immediately nodded and held up two fingers.

"Two people talking, right?"

She nodded again. Evelyn Ford swung the girl onto her back, her knife gripped tightly in her hand. The moment she opened the door, the two men waiting outside immediately surrounded them.

"Leave the kid, and we’ll spare your life," one of them said. They brandished their machetes, slowly closing in on Evelyn Ford.

"Fuck you." Evelyn Ford couldn’t stand the way they were looking at Wendy. She kicked the man in front of her straight in the groin. In the split second he doubled over in pain, her knife slashed across his throat.

Seeing his accomplice fall, the other man raised his machete to attack, but he was suddenly stabbed in the back. His eyes bulged as he toppled over, stiff as a board.

Evelyn Ford and Officer Graham exchanged a look. They picked up the men’s machetes, dragged the bodies into the room, and made a quick exit.

Back in the vehicle, Quincy immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Run into trouble?"

Evelyn Ford nodded. She placed Wendy in Quincy’s arms, then took out a cloth and meticulously wiped the blood from her knife.

"What’s going on with the convoy? It’s not even seven. Are they planning to stop for the night?"

"Let’s eat something first. If we’re spending the night here, everyone needs to stay vigilant. Watch our things on the roof rack, and guard the tires and gasoline."

Everyone took out the food from their backpacks to fill their stomachs. Officer Graham, Quincy, and Evelyn Ford took turns driving. At eight o’clock, the convoy suddenly started moving again, forcing them all to rally their spirits and get back on the road.

"A few guys just dragged a woman away," Roy Henderson said quietly.

"And that old woman who was begging for food... someone clubbed her and dragged her away."

The atmosphere in the car turned somber. They had encountered nothing but trouble on their first day out, and everyone felt dejected.

"Don’t eat out in the open. No matter how pitiful someone looks, do not give away food. Whatever you need to do, go in groups. Remember, never go anywhere alone. That includes me and Quincy," Officer Graham reminded everyone again.

Quincy was now at the wheel. Evelyn Ford had him take a whiff of some medicated oil, and he was now wide awake and alert.

Wyrmrest Base was only thirty or forty kilometers outside of Corinth, but the direct road had been destroyed by floods. They were forced to take a detour, which would add several hundred kilometers to their journey.

The detour would take them through one city, two counties, and a number of towns and villages.

This was information Officer Graham had managed to get in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. The route had been established by a previous scavenging team. The people in the lead vehicles were probably so arrogant because they had connections at Wyrmrest Base.

"When we stop to rest, we can dig for wild vegetables on the roadside. I’ve been looking, and they seem to be growing quite well along the way."

"Good idea. Let’s split into two teams of three. While one team is out foraging, the other can stay behind and guard our supplies. My biggest worry right now is the gasoline. Once other vehicles start running out, they’ll likely resort to robbery."

At two in the morning, the convoy ground to a halt. One of the burly men collecting protection fees banged loudly on a metal basin, and everyone fell silent.

"Rest here for three hours. After that, we keep moving."

As soon as he finished speaking, people began to get out of the vehicles all around them.

Evelyn Ford, Quincy, and Roy Henderson formed one team. After getting out, the three of them first went to relieve themselves, then grabbed shovels and began digging for wild vegetables. Seeing what they were doing, many others joined in.

At two in the morning, the sky was already faintly beginning to lighten. Evelyn Ford kept her head down, swiftly digging up a wild vegetable and tossing it into the cloth bag hung at her waist. After bending over for so long, she felt dizzy when she stood up straight. Suspecting she had low blood sugar, she found a piece of candy and put it in her mouth. The wave of sweetness was enough to stave off the dizzy spell.

After filling her bag, Evelyn Ford returned to the vehicle to swap places with Officer Graham, Wendy, and Owen Chapman, who then went to relieve themselves and forage for vegetables.

Alone in the vehicle, Evelyn Ford quickly trimmed the vegetables. She left out a small handful and stored the rest in her space. She didn’t take out any water to wash them; everyone else just wiped theirs clean before eating, and she wasn’t about to be picky.

Quincy and Roy Henderson had gathered more than her. Perhaps because of the cooler temperatures, the wild vegetables they found on the road out of Corinth were all particularly plump.

"Some woman just tried to snatch my vegetables," Quincy complained. "I got so mad I kicked her. You think it’s easy for a guy with bad eyesight to be out here digging in the dark? And she had the nerve to try and rob me."

"What about your night-vision goggles?"

Quincy shook his head. "I don’t dare take them out. I’m afraid someone will snatch them."